


Riku the Ninth

by The_Violet_Howler



Series: The Locked Door [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games), The Locked Tomb Trilogy | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir
Genre: (Locked Tomb canon that is), Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Ghosts, Implied/Referenced Body Horror, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Locked Tomb AU, M/M, Minor Aqua/Terra (Kingdom Hearts), Minor Isa/Lea (Kingdom Hearts), Minor Vanitas/Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Murder Mystery, Necromancy, Skeletons, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:27:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27145195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Violet_Howler/pseuds/The_Violet_Howler
Summary: The King Undying has issued a summons for the heirs from each of his Nine Houses to travel to the First House to undertake a series of trials that will allow them to potentially become one of his immortal hands and have any favor they desire be granted.As the only necromancer of the Ninth House, Sora has struggled for years with finding a way to save his entire House. The emperor's summons offers the chance to achieve his dream in more ways than one. And with his cavalier, Riku, along for the ride, he's sure they can handle anything the universe has to throw at them.
Relationships: Lauriam & Strelitzia (Kingdom Hearts), Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: The Locked Door [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1981441
Comments: 11
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to my newest fanfiction idea that I started on instead of continuing any of my other unfinished multi-chapter fics. I have recently discovered the miracle that is 4thewords.com, an online RPG that helps you write by giving you monsters to fight by typing words out to chip away at their HP. It's been brilliant for my actually finding the motivation to write again, so I thought I would celebrate my successful completion of my first chapter for a new fic idea that's been rattling around in my head for a few weeks. 
> 
> I was thinking about my latest literary hyperfixation and realized that a lot of my post-KH3 theories were giving me similar vibes to Harrow's whole situation with her memories of Gideon in the second book, and suddenly BOOM, I had the idea for doing a Kingdom Hearts crossover fic with Tamsyn Muir's amazing Locked Tomb trilogy (Book 3, Alecto the Ninth, is due out in 2021).
> 
> This fic will loosely follow the events of the first Locked Tomb novel, Gideon the Ninth, only with Kingdom Hearts characters playing the roles of Locked Tomb characters. But this is not going to be just a simple "swap the character names and call it a day." No, the personalities and relationships of the KH crew are going to play off of each other and affect the plot in wildly different ways than the Locked Tomb cast did. 
> 
> Enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Two is for discipline, heedless of trial;  
>  Three for the gleam of a jewel or a smile;  
> Four for fidelity, facing ahead;  
> Five for tradition and debts to the dead;  
> Six for the truth over solace in lies;  
> Seven for beauty that blossoms and dies;  
> Eight for salvation no matter the cost;  
> Nine for the Tomb, and for all that was lost;_  
> \--Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

In the myriadic year of our Lord - the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the Kindly Prince of Death! - Riku awoke in the House of the Ninth to the unpleasant sensation of his necromancer elbowing him in the face.

It was not an uncommon set of circumstances for Riku to wake under, given that the two had been sharing a bed for the last six years. He hadn't slept in the cold, cramped cell the nuns of the Ninth House had given him for a bedroom in six years, and he had no intention of ever setting foot in there again. His early years as a ward of Drearburh were not ones he looked back on fondly. He'd been an indentured servant of the Ninth House since he was a baby, when a man in a white spacesuit fell from the sky and died at the bottom of the Ninth House entrance shaft. The lord and lady of the house had felt placing the punishment for trespassing on the infant who had no say in what happened to him was a logical course of action, and so Riku had grown up forever working to pay off a debt that was never his. Not for the first time, he felt a spike of resentment for the man who had thought bringing a newborn infant on a spacewalk had been a bright idea. 

That resentment faded as his eyes opened, groggy still from the disturbance, and he turned to see the heir to the Ninth House lying beside him. Sure, if the dead idiot hadn't come to the Ninth House, Riku wouldn't have had to face the fanaticism of the nuns every day for thirteen years, but the alternative would mean a life without the person he loved most. And a life without Sora would be an empty existence. 

As the only children in the House of the Ninth, they had been virtually inseparable, even before Riku had pledged himself as Sora's cavalier. Despite the repeated attempts from the Ninth House to separate them, their friendship managed to stay strong. And over time, their feelings towards each other drifted into romance - though it had taken Kairi's intervention for either of them to admit their feelings. They'd each been too afraid to ruin their friendship if the other liked them back, so on the last day of the year that Sora had turned thirteen, she had cobbled together a Ninth House version of an ancient tradition she knew of called the Missile Toe, a plant hung from doorways that people were required to kiss each other while walking under. They had a good laugh at their own obliviousness later that day as they had opened up about their feelings for each other, and with the awkward tension of trying to keep their distance released, they spent their nights clinging to each other even tighter than they ever had before. 

Riku smiled at the memory as a yawn from the body beside him drew him out of his thoughts, and he reached his arm over to pull Sora close against his side. 

"Good morning," he whispered as he kissed his lover's forehead.

"Morning," Sora answered tiredly, a yawn distorting the sound of his voice. "What time is it?" 

Riku knew what Sora was really asking, and he understood why. They'd talked about what was going to happen today late into the evening the night before. That didn't stop the pang of jealousy he felt that the first words out Sora's mouth in the morning were to ask about Kairi. He knew it wasn't fair to either of them. He liked Kairi. They were great friends. And he knew he shouldn't feel like he was entitled to his boyfriend's attention. But the old jealousy he used to feel when he and Kairi had first met and he thought Sora had a crush on her still reared its head every once in a while. They had talked it out and cleared the air a long time ago, but on occasion he'd still have moments of wishing he could have Sora's attention all to himself. He forced the jealousy back into the mental box he kept it locked in and turned to look at the clock on the bedside table, just barely able to make out the position of the hour hand as his eyes adjusted to the absence of light. 

"We have three hours," he answered. Sora hummed in acknowledgement as he buried his face in Riku's chest and threw his arm around the older boy, pressing their bodies even closer together than they already were. Riku shifted his arm slightly so make sure his boyfriend would be more comfortable, then set his mind towards the main task of the day. 

Kairi had entered the Ninth House six years ago as a wanderer looking to catch her breath and get her bearings in her quest for a place to belong. Despite her love of bright colors clashing with the dark aesthetic of the Ninth, the tombkeepers were overjoyed to have her there, to a level that bordered on obsession. All the children of the Ninth House had died from gas exposure when Riku was only a year old, with only Riku himself surviving. Nine months later, Sora was born. But the priests and nuns of the Ninth House were all getting on in years, and all of them far too old to have children. Without a younger generation the House was on the brink of extinction, and as the heir, Sora was expected to marry and have as many children as possible to ensure that the keepers of the Locked Tomb would be able to continue their duty for another generation. 

Though no one had ever said so openly, Riku knew that some of the acolytes were trying to get Kairi and Sora to make some babies together. The thought of either of them being forced to have children made Riku sick to his stomach, and there were days where he was tempted to smuggle the three of them off the planet and leave the decrepit cult to die off like they deserved.

But Sora cared about helping people. It was just who he was, and one of many things that Riku loved about him. While Sora wouldn't openly tell any of the nuns talking about what a cute couple and Kairi would make that he already had a guy he wanted to marry, he would still find some other way to help the Ninth House survive. 

In any case, Kairi agreed with Riku that the attempted matchmaking of the priests had long since crossed the border from annoying to creepy. Which was why she had declared that today would be the day she traveled to visit friends in the Sixth House. She had enjoyed living in the Ninth House, she had told everyone, but she was too much of a free spirit to stay in one place for too long. She had hired a Cohort shuttle that would pick her up and take her where she wanted to go, and her flight was due to leave later this morning before lunch. Sora had promised to be there to say goodbye before she left the Ninth House and it's mysterious tomb behind.

But if he wanted to be ready in time to see her off, Sora was going to have to get up and take care of everything else on his to-do list for the day. And despite the best efforts of his Cavalier, the Marshall, and the captain of the house guard, the heir to the Ninth House had never been much of a morning person. Which meant, if the snore just now was any indication, it fell on Riku to wake him up. 

"C'mon sleepyhead," Riku teased as he slid his arms out and tickled his fingers against Sora's side. He chuckled as Sora yelped and scrambled to get away. 

"Okay, okay, I'm up!" He cried out as he pushed back and rolled off the bed, pulling the blankets with him. Riku laughed warmly as he reached over to switch on the lamp next to the bed. As the flickering light illuminated the windowless bedroom, Riku took in the sight of his boyfriend's form as Sora stood and opened a dresser against the wall. 

As a necromancer, Sora was physically incapable of building up his muscles no matter how much he exercised. A necromancer's body used up so much energy that replenishing it to maintain equilibrium resulted in necromancers as a rule being scrawny, not particularly fit, and severely lacking in upper or lower body strength. That was why the position of cavalier existed - to be their necromancer's muscle and defend them against physical threats while the necromancer themselves cut loose with their powers. The disparity between their physical strength was a continued source of frustration for Sora, despite how he tried to hide it. But despite his self-deprecating comments about his own body, Riku could never look at Sora's body and think of him as anything other than beautiful. 

"You're staring again," Sora said without even bothering to turn around. Riku blushed, and could even see Sora's ears redden with a blush of his own. Still, they'd slept together enough that Riku had managed to overcome the urge to back down long ago. He smiling as he leaned back against the headboard. 

"Just appreciating how beautiful you look like this," he said. 

"Weak and helpless, you mean," Sora replied. 

Riku frowned. Sora had gotten better over the years since Riku had become his cavalier, but he still had a tendency to pile on the self-deprecation when there was something weighing down on his mind. 

"I meant unguarded," Riku said. "You put on so many different layers and masks to the outside world to hide how you really feel, what you really think. But it's only when you feel safe enough to let your walls down that the real you shines through. You are so strong to go through everything you've been through, to know what you know, see what you've seen, and still come out as a good person on the other side."

"But what if something goes wrong after Kairi leaves?" Sora replied. "We're putting so much on trust here, and if we're wrong it'll be all my fault."

"I think we know what we're dealing with well enough after all these years," Riku commented. "And even if something does happen, it's not your fault."

"But people could die because of what I did," Sora objected. 

"Sora, you were five years old." Riku said. "We still don't even understand how what you did was even possible."

"But we do, though," Sora replied. 

"We have theories and educated guesses," Riku said. "Nothing concrete."

"But I...." Riku recognized the tears beginning to flow from Sora's eyes as his lover was overwhelmed by his own emotions. The cavalier was on his feet in an instant, wrapping his lover into a tight hug . 

"Listen to me," Riku whispered into Sora's ear. "Trust Kairi to know what she's doing. Everything will be fine. No one is going to die. If anything happens, it will be because of the actions of other people, not you." 

The two of them stood like that for several minutes, Riku rubbing gentle circles in Sora's back as his boyfriend cried into his shoulder. The tears eventually stopped, but Riku continued to hold Sora in his arms. Once Sora had achieved his catharsis, Riku leaned back just enough that he could kiss Sora's forehead again. 

"I love you," Sora whispered, his voice hoarse as the anxious tension of his worries was finally released. "I just worry about what'll happen to us if anyone ever finds out our secrets." 

"Whatever happens, we'll face it together," Riku answered firmly. "I swore an oath the day I became your cavalier. I've been keeping it since before I knew the words, and I'll still be keeping it when our ghosts are haunting the halls of the Ninth." Sora leaned back to look Riku in the eyes, his mouth already moving to repeat the words in unison. 

"One flesh, one end." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I shamelessly copied the first half of the opening sentence of Gideon the Ninth to open this fic. It was too good a line not to use in some fashion, and I wanted to have a quick and easy way to set the contrast between Riku and Gideon's positions within the Ninth House.
> 
> I've also laid a few breadcrumbs for later twists that will be obvious af for anyone who's read Gideon the Ninth or it's sequel Harrow the Ninth what is happening, but are just vague enough that anyone unfamiliar with the books won't see what's coming


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally I was going to have a goodbye on the landing platform as Kairi's only scene in this entire fic (I have plans for her, but while I'm planting the seeds for them now they won't fully bloom until I start covering the events of the second book, which will be it's own fic). My muse took over as I started writing this chapter and that turned into a 3k word breakfast scene where I introduce 2 of the only Ninth-House affiliated Kingdom Hearts characters who matter in this AU and use Riku zoning out as a vehicle to provide people unfamiliar with the Locked Tomb trilogy some exposition of the novels' worldbuilding and lore.

They found Kairi making herself breakfast alone in the kitchen. It was early enough in the morning that the cooks hadn't risen yet and the three of them could talk about things freely. She sat alone with a plate of pancakes in front of her at the table, a stool pulled up for her to sit on. Four more plates sat on the counter next to the stovetop, each piled high with pancakes for her friends. A skeletal servitor stood over the sink, bones creaking as it mechanically scrubbed the frying pan. Kairi looked up when they came in and smiled.

"I'm impressed," she said. "I thought Riku would have had to carry you down here."

"Like I'd miss out on spending as much time together as we can before you leave," Sora replied with a grin as he gave her a hug before pulling up a stool of his own beside her. Riku chuckled and grabbed two plates for both Sora and himself before grabbing another stool to sit at the end of the table on his boyfriend's other side. Kairi smiled at him as he sat down, ruffling Sora's hair like an older sister would before she started cutting into her pancakes. 

"Yeah, but we both know you like to sleep in, so I was going to grab a quick bite to eat before the old ladies woke up and started asking if I would please reconsider leaving because 'the reverend son of Drearburh is such a charming young man to settle down with' like they think having Sora's babies would be a selling point." Riku laughed, wordlessly circling his finger around his ear in a gesture that Kairi had taught them when he and Sora were kids. Sora laughed weakly, before he fixed his gaze on the pancakes in front of him, his brow contorting in anger like he hoped to smite his breakfast with a look alone. Riku understood the helpless frustration in his lover's eyes at knowing that every solution to your problems was forever out of your reach. 

While Riku was sure most of the nuns would have a stroke at the thought of an ungrateful waste of resources like him reproducing with their precious heir, advances in technology and necromancy over the last ten millennia had made it possible for same-gender couples to have children together. It was something that had come up when he and Sora first talked about whether kids were something either of them wanted, after Sora started to feel overwhelmed by the pressure from the elders of the Ninth House to, in the words of a particularly stubborn nun Riku had overheard ranting in private, "hurry up and get the girl pregnant already." 

But even if they waited for the nuns who would most hate the idea of future Ninth House children sharing DNA with Riku The Unworthy to die off, the option still remained beyond their reach. The Ninth House didn't have enough money for a vat womb, even if by some miracle the next group of pilgrims included a flesh magician from the Third with the skill to operate one. 

Before Riku could say anything to try and improve Sora's mood, a new voice interrupted them. 

"Considering how many of those 'old ladies' I have the misfortune to share blood with, it may be in the interests of the Ninth House for me to have a talk with them about respecting the boundaries of others," Riku turned around enough to see an elderly woman clad in a white shirt and indigo leggings, the black longcoat that normally concealed her defiantly colorful attire draped over her shoulders like a cape. At the sight of the octogenarian, Sora immediately perked up. 

"Morning, Vor!" he greeted warmly, his sourness at the nuns meddling once again in his love life melting away at the woman who was like a grandmother to the three of them. Vor had been the captain of the Ninth House guard since before Sora's _parents_ were born, and Riku had the sneaking suspicion that she would continue to hold her position long after he and Sora were dead. She was one of only two adults in the entire house who the teenagers trusted with their secrets, and her battlefield experience with the Cohort had been invaluable to Riku when he first began his training as Sora's cavalier. 

"Good morning, m'lord," she replied as she took at seat at the table across from Kairi. The skeletal servant had finished washing the dishes and carried a plate over to set in front of the aged ex-soldier. As it straightened up to leave the room, it turned its empty eye sockets towards the door leading out to the catacombs. Sora immediately leaned over to get a good look at the man who had come through. Vor didn't even bother to turn around. 

"Figures the only thing that would get you up early today would be food," Vor teased irreverently as Yen Sid, the marshal of the Ninth House, walked into the room. 

"Good morning to you all," the man greeted as he took a seat at the table between Riku and Vor. The skeleton clacked its foot bones against the floor as it marched back to the counter to retrieve Yen Sid's pancakes, then withdrew to stand in the corner until it received further instructions. 

It was moments like this that made Riku marvel at what what Sora was capable of, and despair at how Sora was never able to see his skill as valuable. Here he was, an untrained bone mage on the cusp of adulthood with little formal training supplemented by the journals of long-dead ancestors for education, and he had been doing the work of two trained, full-grown adepts for six years with no one outside this room the wiser. The skeletal constructs that functioned as servants in the House of the Ninth could function independently and perform assigned tasks without the direct input of a necromancer, but without the theorems to animate them, the constructs would be nothing but piles of bone. 

Sora's parents had given up on maintaining the necromantic spells that kept the household's skeletal staff moving when they officially took a vow of silence six years ago. They had considered it penance for the sins they'd committed, and in the process had left the running of the Ninth House to their only son. As far as the penitents and postulants who worshiped at the door of the tomb were concerned, the lord and lady of the Ninth House were still running everything even though their son was the one to speak for them. The other houses and even the prison in orbit believed much the same. It made Riku angry thinking about how much pressure Sora's parents had left on his shoulders because they didn't want to deal with the consequences of their actions. Ever since they were little Sora had dreamed of exploring the worlds outside the Ninth House, and his parents had shackled him to this place in a way that ensured that the weight of their failures would follow him if he ever tried to leave. Riku hated them for it.

Yen Sid and Vor were the only ones who knew the truth, and for that Riku was forever grateful to have adults around who could ease the burden on Sora's shoulders. Having Yen Sid and Vor around to take care of most administrative tasks in the Ninth meant that Riku had been able to help Sora find time to actually get to relax instead of having to be The Reverend Son of Drearburh all the time. It was something Riku appreciated after spending two thirds of his life thus far living with fanatics who expected him to behave like a miniature adult half the time. He was still seventeen years old, and Sora was only sixteen. It was nice to be allowed to act their age for once.

Both adults were quiet as they ate their breakfast, not saying a word as Sora and Riku talked animatedly with Kairi about what she would do when arrived at the Sixth House. Sora animatedly describing what kind of adventures Kairi would have, while Riku speculated about life outside their lonely corner of the empire. 

According to the history books, the empire began ten thousand years ago, when the Necrolord Prime developed the art of necromancy and renewed the life of his dying planet, resurrecting the ten billion souls who lived there. The emperor resurrected the other planets throughout the solar system, and seeded life among the nine renewed celestial bodies. As the empire began to extend its reach to other solar systems, each of the Nine Houses that formed the core of the empire came to fill different roles in the functioning of their society. The Ninth House was founded to guard the tomb that sealed away the frozen corpse of the emperor's greatest foe, a monster so powerful the King Undying could only defeat it once. The opening of the tomb signaled the end of everything the Nine Houses had built, an apocalypse that would destroy civilization as they knew it forever. 

Or at least, that was what the nuns said when they were "disciplining" Riku for not being the docile little acolyte they tried to mold him into. It was hard to tell some days whether the reverence for the Necrolord Prime to the point that even cynical Vor considered the emperor more of a deity than a man was the norm throughout the empire, or if it was only the Eighth, the Ninth, and the handful of pilgrims who migrated to Drearburh that were like this. 

Having grown up their entire lives in the dark and dreary catacombs of the Ninth, Sora and Riku's imaginations were enthralled by the dream of one day visiting the other houses. The pilgrims who came to join the cult-like order that guarded the tomb brought with them stories of life on other planets far from here, but those tales did not paint as clear a picture as Sora and Riku could get by going out and seeing the worlds for themselves. The stories they heard were distorted and slanted by the cynicism and weariness of the newest arrivals to Castle Drearburh. So many times growing up Riku had longed to hire a Cohort shuttle and sneak away to a far off planet, leaving the dreary almost-ghosts of the Ninth House behind. 

He had tried once, when he was six. He and Sora had gotten into their first fight that day, and once his anger had cooled he'd panicked at the thought that Sora's parents would punish him for what he said to their son. They hadn't, but two weeks went by without Sora coming to see him and Riku had felt so afraid Sora didn't want to be friends anymore that he tried to request a shuttle to the Ninth House so he could leave, thinking that enlisting in the Cohort would be preferable to growing up friendless in Drearburh. Yen Sid had caught him on his way to the landing pad, and that night Sora had snuck down to his room to apologize. That had been just before he met Kairi for the first time, when Sora had promised to take the three of them on a tour of the other Houses when they were older. That was one more dream that Sora's parents had crushed when they dumped their responsibilities in his lap.

But at least Kairi would get a chance to see the galaxy. She deserved it most out of any of them, and she had promised to send pictures and souvenirs back to the Ninth as she toured the other Houses. It wouldn't be the same getting to leave this place themselves, but living vicariously through their friend was the best that Riku and Sora could ever hope for. 

A hand waving in front of his face abruptly derailed his train of thought, bringing him back to the present as he heard Sora's voice calling his name. 

"Ninth to Riku! Hello!?" Riku batted Sora's hand aside and realized that his boyfriend and Kairi were looking at him expecting some sort of answer from him.

"Yeah?" he asked. 

"What do you think?" 

"Of?" He didn't need a mirror to know he looked sheepish at missing the remainder of Sora and Kairi's conversation while he was lost in his own thoughts. Sora groaned and punched him softly in the shoulder. Kairi rolled her eyes playfully. 

"Sora and I disagree over whether the Sixth House or the Fifth would be a better vacation destination," she explained. "And we were hoping you would be our tie-breaker." 

"We both know Riku will agree with me that the Fifth House would be so much cooler to visit than the Sixth," Sora commented, winking at Riku as he prodded his boyfriend with his elbow, clearly trying to goad his lover into agreeing. Riku grinned mischievously as he set down his fork. He had been waiting for this opportunity. Yen Sid and Vor had ordered the skeleton to bring them all drinks, and the two elders held their glasses up to their faces in a clear attempt to hide the smirks on their faces at how they knew this would play out. 

"Well that depends," Riku replied. "What does Kairi have to say about her choice?" Kairi cackled and Sora spluttered at Riku's non-answer. 

"Well," she said mirthfully, barely keeping a straight face as she pretended to be an academic presenting her paper to a review board. "The Sixth House is the academic capital of the system. Scholars from all Nine Houses go to study at The Library and advance the knowledge of mankind."

"But outside of The Library, the only thing the Sixth has going for it is being the closest planet to Dominicus," Sora argued. "The Fifth House is the cultural center of the empire, _and_ their planet has rings."

"The Fifth is not the only house whose planet has rings, Sora," Kairi fired back. "Third, Fourth, and Eighth have rings too." 

"Yeah, but the Fifth House is the only one that has a giant perpetual storm on their planet," Sora retaliated. "That's so much cooler!" 

Riku chuckled. Sora had always hated studying growing up. He was someone who preferred to learn things hands on as opposed to reading about concepts in books with stuffy, clinical language that made the most interesting subjects sound boring and useless. Riku, on the other hand, had always been good at sifting through the dry prose and could read the old tomes for hours without ever getting bored. Sora grinned smugly at Kairi, who simply leaned back in her chair with a knowing smirk as Riku made a show of considering the two arguments. 

"You both have good points," he said. "But ultimately, I think each of the other houses has it's own things that would interest all of us. They'd all be equally cool to see. But if I had to choose just one I guess it would have to be....." Sora leaned forward on his stool, arm winding up in anticipation of a celebratory fist pump. 

"The Eighth" 

"WHAT!?" Sora shouted in disbelief. In his surprise he pulled himself up and kicked his stool back, knocking it down to the floor. Kairi laughed, and even Yen Sid and Vor chuckled softly into their cups. 

"Don't ever change, Sora," Kairi said affectionately. "You falling for this every time will always keep me entertained." 

Riku laughed and leaned over to kiss his boyfriend on the cheek. Every time Sora asked Riku to break a tie between himself and Kairi, and every time he acted surprised when Riku stirred the pot by taking his own side in the debate. 

"So, Kairi, any last minute things on your bucket list to check off before the shuttle arrives?" 

Kairi smiled, but before she could answer, voices from the hallway tore their attention toward the door. Vor and Yen Sid nodded and signaled that it was time to cut their morning chat short if Kairi wanted to avoid any further conversations with the nuns. The skeleton had already cleared away everyone's plates and stood motionless in the corner, so the only other signs of their little group's presence was the stool. Vor gestured to her left and motioned for Kairi to follow, the two ladies slipping silently out of the room before two black-robed old women came in from the other direction to find Sora, Riku, and Yen Sid posed as if the marshal had just arrived to discover the cavalier primary helping the heir to the Ninth House off the floor after his stool fell over. 

Fortunately, it was only Sora's great-aunts who discovered them. The two old ladies had gone blind before Sora was born, and they had reached the age where their hearing was beginning to go as well. That meant that there was almost no chance that they had heard Kairi and Vor sneak away and would therefore not ask questions about who else had been in the kitchen. Instead, Riku bit his lip to keep from snarling as the two women tutted while they began to lecture Sora about how such rough behavior was beneath the reverend son of Drearburh and what an irresponsible cavalier he had for encouraging it. Kairi knew to wait for them in Sora's office. Once the aunts started lecturing, Riku and Sora had to wait until they finished before it was safe to slip away. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warning: if you're uncomfortable with discussions of suicide and murder-suicides, I would advise you to skip to the notes at the end of the chapter for a brief summary, starting from the words "Sora was twelve..."  
> Also skip that part if you have any fears or squicks relating to teeth. This is going to give a taste of some of the 
> 
> In this chapter I peel back the curtain a bit on some of the vagueness that Sora and Riku were alluding to in the previous chapters and give non-Locked Tomb readers even more questions as I wrap up Act I of this fic. 
> 
> At most we'll have about 3 more chapters before I take a break to plan out the rest of the fic. I only planed out the events leading up to the arrival at the First House, then the ending, and then the climax of the sequel (because of course I'm covering _Harrow the Ninth_ ), so once Sora and Riku meet the heirs of the others Houses, I'm going to shift gears and start using 4thewords to work on some of my other ongoing fics while I outline the remainder of this one.

By the time Sora's great aunts had finished giving the teenage necromancer a verbal lashing that left him quiet and subdued as he walked beside his cavalier in the halls, it was another two hours before Kairi's shuttle was due to arrive. Yen Sid walked with them as they made their way towards the offices of the Lord and Lady of the Ninth House. They were just turning a corner when Riku collided with someone coming around the corner at the same time but much faster than him. 

"There you are," Kairi said breathlessly. Sora and Yen Sid stopped to help the two back to their feet. Riku was annoyed at the lack of apology, but his iritation was quickly subdued when he saw that Kairi was clearly out of breath and looked almost panicked. 

"What happened?" Sora asked, pushing aside his own frustration at his family to focus on his friend. 

"There's a shuttle on the landing pad." 

"I thought your ride wasn't supposed to leave for two more hours," Riku commented. 

"Not mine," Kairi replied, an edge of fear in her voice. "It's a shuttle from the First."

The two teens and the marshal froze at her words. The First House was the domain of the emperor and his inner circle. But the Saints who served the King Undying _never_ communicated with the Nine Houses directly. For a First House shuttle to be here meant one thing, and one thing only: a message from the emperor himself. 

_We've been found out._

That thought looped in Riku's mind as Yen Sid escorted him and Sora through the catacombs to the landing pad to greet the shuttle. It was the only explanation he could think of. The emperor had discovered what Sora had done - what _they_ had done - and they were about to be taken to the emperor for judgement. It didn't matter that there was no way for physical evidence of their sin to have been found off the the surface of the Ninth House. The emperor would recognize when a ward failed. Riku did not know whether that would be enough evidence to damn the both of them, or only Sora, but as they marched toward their doom, he swore to join Sora in the River should the worst happen. If they died for their sins, they died together. One flesh, one end. 

He took a deep breath to steady himself as they approached the landing pad, giving Sora's hand a reassuring squeeze as they marched out of the tunnels. Kairi had made a run back to their rooms to grab what they needed to appear before the emperor's messenger in their best formal attire. Which in the Ninth House meant that their faces were now caked with makeup and paint so that they looked like skulls, while Riku wore the traditional rapier of a cavalier on his hip. 

Much to Riku's temporary relief, there was no sign of a Cohort phalanx standing ready to arrest them when they approached the shuttle. It did not rule out the possibility of an ambush, but it did ease some of his immediate worrying. Instead of soldiers, a portly old woman in a glimmering blue robe stood at the base of the shuttle's boarding ramp, an thick envelope in her hands. New questions came to the forefront of Riku's mind, but he ignored them so that he could be ready to handle the immediate situation. 

"Hail to the House of the Ninth," the old woman called out as they approached her. 

"Hail to the House of the First," Sora called back. "Hail to the King Undying."

"Hail to the Lord Over the River," the woman answered warmly. "I come bearing a message from Our Resurrector for the Lord and Lady of the Ninth House. A reply is required within the next three months, either electronically, or if you wish to respond by paper you may either send it with the shuttle you previously requested or request a new shuttle to deliver your reply to the First House within the next ninety days." 

The fact that they were expected to reply to the letter ruled out most possibilities of it being a trap, although Riku did not think it likely the emperor would drag out his and Sora's arrest for three months. Still, the fact that they weren't going to be handcuffed on the spot at swordpoint offered some relief for his nerves. The mention of Sora's parents meant that his guard stayed up, however, as the woman's speech brought with it new questions. 

He was silent as Sora politely thanked the woman for coming all the way out to the Ninth House to deliver the emperor's message in person. Despite the risk, Sora offered the messenger the hospitality of the Ninth to allow her to rest for the night after her long journey. She politely declined, and wished them luck with their decision before returning to her shuttle and blasting off back into orbit as quickly as she had come. Confused, the quartet made their way back to Sora's office, where Kairi waited for their reassurance that the shuttle was gone. 

The office officially belonged to Sora's parents in name, but since they had abdicated their duties as Lord and Lady of the Ninth House, in practice it belonged to Sora. Yen Sid stood guard by the door while Riku pulled four chairs into a circle in the middle of the room. Kairi sat to Sora's left, while Riku took the right side, with Vor sitting across. Sora took a deep breath to steady himself for the worst as he gingerly tore open the envelope and from it removed a letter written on old parchment. He got up to place the remains of the envelope on his father's desk before returning to stand in front of his seat. His eyes widened as they scanned the page, and as he exhaled he all but collapsed into his chair. 

"Are you alright?" Riku asked as he immediately rushed to his lover's side. Wordlessly, Sora collected himself silently, taking a moment to prepare himself. Riku sat back down, but kept a hand on Sora's knee in reassurance. After a few minutes, Sora held up the letter, hands trembling as he read the message aloud:

_"Addressing the House of the Ninth, its Reverend Lady and its Reverend Lord:"_

_"Salutations to the House of the Ninth, and blessings upon its tombs, its peaceful dead, and its manifold mysteries. His Celestial Kindliness, the First Reborn, begs this house to honor its love for the Creator, as set in the contract of tenderness made on the day of the Resurrection, and humbly asks for the first fruits of your household..."_ Sora paused to explain that his and Riku's names were listed there. 

_"For in need now are the Emperor's Hands, the most blessed and beloved of the King Undying, the faithful and the everlasting. The Emperor calls now for postulants to the position of Lyctor, heirs to the eight stalwarts who have served these ten thousand years: as many of them now lie waiting for the rivers to rise on the day they wake to their King, those lonely guard remaining petition for their numbers to be renewed and their Lord above Lords to find eight new liegemen."_

_"To this end we beg the first of your House and their cavalier to kneel in glory and attend the finest study, that of being the Emperor's bones and joints, his fists and gestures..."_

_"Eight we hope will meditate and ascend to the Emperor in glory in the temple of the First House, eight new Lyctors joined with their cavaliers; and if the Necrolord Highest blesses but does not take, they shall return home in full honor, with trump and timbrel. There is no dutiful gift so perfect, nor so lovely in his eyes."_

Riku exhaled the tension he'd been holding since Kairi had first told them about the shuttle. They hadn't been caught after all. Their secrets were still safe. He moved his hand to Sora's shoulder, his boyfriend's presence grounding him as new worries took the place of the old ones. 

A Lyctor. Sora was being asked to attempt the trials to become one of the immortal right hands of the emperor. It was tremendously dangerous for their secrets, but also the miracle Sora had been hoping for: a way to restore the Ninth House without being forced to marry a woman he wasn't interested in. If they could complete the trials, Sora could ask the emperor to restore their House. Then, with the debt Sora felt he owed to the Ninth released, he and Riku would have the next ten thousand years and more to travel together. 

Sora looked torn over what to say, like he wasn't sure how he was supposed to react to this letter. Riku opened his mouth to ask Sora how he was feeling, but Kairi spoke before he could say anything. 

"I need you both to promise me something," she said. He looked to his right to find their friend fixing both him and Sora each with a hard, serious stare. "No matter what happens, do not let anyone separate you. If the process to become a Lyctor works the way it should, Riku will be the one who needs protection more than you, Sora. Riku, promise me. _Promise me_ you'll be careful if Sora complets the trials. And Sora, if you do finish the trials, never leave Riku alone with anyone you wouldn't trust with our secrets."

Riku nodded. Despite not being a necromancer herself, Kairi had accumulated a great deal of knowledge of the art in a short period of time. She knew what she was talking about. If she was this serious about this, Riku saw no reason not to trust her word on the subject of Lyctorhood. 

"I promise," they both said. Sora reached out and squeezed Riku's hand to affirm their promise.

By then, Kairi's shuttle was due to land in just over an hour. It was agreed without anyone needing to speak that they would wait until after Kairi had left to sound the muster call and announce the contents of the message to the congregation of the Ninth. The religious order that populated the House would need to be informed of the immanent departure of the heir and cavalier. Which of course meant making preparations for a full church service and everything that came with it. The robes, the face paint, the prayer beads made from the knuckle bones of the dead.... Getting Sora's parents down to the Ninth House chapel so that Sora could pretend his parents were leading the service with him as their mouthpiece, leading prayers that he only half believed as he played the part of the devout son of the Ninth. 

Riku sighed. Even if they put off the muster call until after Kairi left, the emperor's message would hang over their remaining time together like a dark shadow. The emperor may have just offered Riku and Sora a way out of the situation they had been trapped in, but in the same stroke had completely ruined their day. Now instead of a quiet morning relaxing before they said goodbye to their friend, followed by a lazy afternoon before the evening service, they would have to spend the rest of the day making arrangements for Yen Sid and Vor to keep the Ninth House running when the two boys left for the First. 

While the summons clouded the rest of their morning with a constant sense of unease, the three did their best to enjoy themselves in the time they had left. Vor and Yen Sid agreed to make most of the preparations for muster call so that Sora and Riku could put it off until they were ready to start, which left Kairi and the boys with time to talk about their fears and anxieties about their upcoming trips. 

They said goodbye to her on the landing platform when the shuttle arrived to take her to The Library. Sora made her promise to take pictures if her shuttle passed Koniortos and got a good view of it's famed crimson storm, making them all laugh a little and ensuring that as Kairi boarded the ship to take her away from the House of Heretical Secrets, their spirits were all lifted. That was another gift of Sora's that Riku loved about him: his ability to ease other's fears and pain and spread little sparks of joy even in the face of news such as today's. The two of them watched with smiles on their faces waving to their friend as her bone-covered shuttle rose out of the central shaft of the Anchorite's House toward the surface and accelerated into the open sky. Only when satellite monitoring at the prison floating halfway up the atmosphere confirmed her shuttle had left orbit did they turn around and head back toward the office to prepare Sora's parents for the muster. 

His father was right where they had left him, sitting in his office chair to give anyone else who came knocking the illusion of getting important work done. Sora's mother sat at her own desk on the opposite side of the room. Sora's hands were steady as he applied the makeup and face paint in a skull pattern on his mother' s face, covering up pale, sagging skin and a noticeable lack of wrinkles. They had done this enough times that having to do this didn't make Sora's hands shake anymore, and they had worked out a system where Riku would take care of Sora's father before Vor would come in and touch up the Lord and Lady of the Ninth House with some makeup before pulling the hood and veil over their faces. 

While having to do this always made Riku feel queasy, he couldn't help but pride himself at how his skill had increased in the six years since Sora's parents had died. If he hadn't know the man was dead, he might have thought that Sora's father was merely sitting impassively at his office desk. Every year Sora added new lists of vows his parents had undertaken to keep the servants from disturbing their chambers, each time giving himself more responsibilities to limit the number of people who interacted with them in order to better maintain the illusion that they were still alive. 

Sora had been twelve when his parents and their cavalier Morty killed themselves in this very room. They had tried to hang Sora alongside themselves, his mother using bone magic to fuse his teeth together to keep him from calling out for help. But Sora had fought every step of the way. His parents ensured that they deaths would all be simultaneous, but Sora's flailing in the noose gave the adults a head start and gave Sora time to slip free as his parents kicked and choked in the air. Sora tried to save his parents and get them down alive, but by the time he caught his breath enough that he could stand after he dropped to the floor, it was already too late. He hadn't yet been taught how to fuse bone yet, but he managed to figure out how to un-fuse his jaws just in time to vomit all over the carpet. 

That was where Riku and Yen Sid had found him, when the latter came to speak to his parents and Riku had tagged along so that he and Sora could play together. The sight they beheld when they entered the office had put all other plans that day on hold. The memory of rubbing circles in Sora's back was etched vividly into Riku's mind, comforting his friend as Sora told them what had happened, and the conversation that had lead to the attempted murder-suicide. 

When Yen Sid learned of their secret, he did not react with the primordial terror that Sora's parents had. Instead, he had calmly told them that if the other Houses learned the reason why the Lord and Lady of Drearburh had committed suicide, it would result in the complete extermination of the Ninth. To ensure the survival of their house, he had said, they must cover up the deaths. No one else could know that Sora's parents were no longer alive. 

It had taken an hour of research from the Ninth's library of necromantic texts before they had found a way for Sora to preserve his parents' bodies. The book containing this information was so forbidden that reading it added another crime to their list of sins. Since Sora was only twelve, grieving, and still partly in shock from the experience, the execution of the spell had been sloppy. His parents looked normal from the shoulders up, but everything from the shoulders down continued to decay. 

Thankfully, the vows of silence and fasting and seclusion kept the reverent adherents of Ninth religion at bay. Sora's great-aunts were the only ones who were ever allowed close enough to potentially be suspicious, given that Sora was required to sit with his blood relations during all church services. However their blindness kept them from seeing the flaws in the masquerade up close, and a lie about Sora's mother using scented perfume hid the smell of rotting flesh. 

Riku was distracted from his recollections as Sora let out a disappointed sigh. 

"What's wrong?" he asked as he walked over and put his arms around his boyfriend.

"Just thinking about how differently this should have been," Sora said. "How much more exciting this would be if I could just be me instead of a monument to everyone who isn't here."

For a moment, Riku was silent, wordlessly holding Sora in comfort as the tears slipped out and ruined the skull-pattern makeup on his lover's face face. Riku should've expected this. Seeing his parents always reminded Sora of the sacrifices they had made in order to bring their necromantic scion into the world, and the knowledge that restoring the Ninth House would never be enough for the cost to be worth it. His parents had told him that cost before they hanged him, and he had told Riku afterwards as they spent the night in Sora's bed, Riku holding the necromancer as he thrashed in his sleep from night terrors, the replayed memories of his parents deaths mixing with dreams of the price his parents had paid to ensure their child would be a necromancer. 

"I think," Riku said finally. "That going to the First as yourself is the best way to honor the people who aren't here. If you want them to live on through you, let them experience the things they never got to have. It would be the ultimate defiance to go to the First as Sora, not as the Reverend Son. I like to think they'd all appreciate it if they could see you."

"You really think so?" Sora asked. 

"I do," Riku answered. "Your parents' actions are not yours. You're your own person, and you should be able to truly _live_ , instead of punishing yourself for something you had no choice in." 

Sora didn't look entirely convinced, but he offered Riku a small smile as he allowed his cavalier to lead him from the room, ordering his parents' reanimated corpses to follow them down to the Drearburh chapel. Riku knew that this didn't resolve Sora's guilt, but being able to make Sora feel better when he was feeling down like this made all the secrecy and charades easier to bear. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Explanation of content warning: Sora's parents attempted to kill him in a murder-suicide when he was twelve, with Sora, Riku, Yen Sid, and Vor covering up the deaths of Sora's parents to prevent the other Houses from asking too many questions and bombing the Ninth House in response when they discovered his parents' crimes. 
> 
> And so Kairi is now shuffled offscreen until we get to the events of the second and third books. My plans for Kairi are just vague outlines at this point and won't be fully solidified until we get closer to the 2022 release of _Alecto the Ninth_ , so sending her off is half the result of my own plans and half "I have no idea how to get from Point A to Point B so I'm going to put her in a position that leaves my options open instead of tying her down to what little Locked Tomb canon has given me for the role I've placed her in." 
> 
> I couldn't figure out a proper Locked Tomb character role for the Fairy Godmother, so I managed to sneak her in here as the emperor's messenger. The letter she delivers is directly quoted from Chapter 3 of _Gideon the Ninth_.
> 
> Other than the naming joke of a Disney character named Morty playing the role of Locked Tomb character Mortus, my choice of an obscure Disney character is foreshadowing to any Kingdom Hearts fans who have read Harrow the Ninth what role Mickey Mouse will play when he finally shows up.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's going to be one more chapter after this before I take a hiatus to figure out how to get to the final battle.

After three months of preparations, the time finally came for Sora and Riku to leave the Ninth House behind. At Riku's encouragement, Sora had throw himself into his necromantic studies to make sure he had as much knowledge of his art as they could get from the library of the Ninth before their departure. What he didn't get a chance to read they could take in their trunks. After just over twelve weeks of preparations and training, it was time to go. Their luggage had been brought out to the landing field, and all that was left to do was say their goodbyes.

Which unfortunately meant that the entire House of the Ninth had gathered on the tier of the landing field to see them off. It was almost sad to watch how eagerly they kissed the hem of Sora's robe, kneeling in prayer with Sora's great-aunts as the Reverend Son of Drearburh stood and watched, his face as tranquil and pale as the skeletons working in the upper tier. 

Riku stood quietly off to the side as Sora explained that his parents had chosen to seal the passageway to the Tomb and stay behind the wall to continue their penitence until their son returned. Riku bit his lip to keep from smiling at how easily the Ninth House accepted the lie, helped by the fact that Sora did not give them time to digest his words before the heir announced that Yen Sid would be acting as seneschal for the House of the Ninth in his place, while Vor would be filling the marshal's role. 

It was almost comical how perfect the timing of Sora's speech was, since the Secundarius bell rang as soon as he finished speaking. As the bell tolled, the dim light of the equinox was cut off as the shuttle made its way to the bottom of the central shaft. Riku and Sora looked out at the aged and withering crowd, and Riku honestly was not sorry to see them go. He knew that Sora wasn't particularly going to miss them much either, but his boyfriend had gotten good at pretending. He bit his lip to keep from laughing when Sora told the assembled relics of the Ninth House that his heart was always here, thinking of how many times Sora had said in private over the years that his heart was wherever the two of them were together, regardless of their physical location. 

It was almost scary how easily Sora could shift into the persona of the Reverend Son of Drearburh, devout follower of Ninth House religion and loyal keeper of the Locked Tomb. But thankfully, provided that nothing particular was expected of them at the First House, this would be the last time Sora ever wore that particular mask and could finally put it away for good. 

Sora led the Ninth House congregation in prayer just as the shuttle finished docking, and then it was time to go. He and Riku loaded their trunks into the shuttle, and in that moment it finally settled in with Riku that they might never come back. Even if they failed to ascend to Lyctorhood, he honestly didn't think Sora would want to come back here again. And Riku was honestly okay with that. 

The trade-off, of course, was the likelihood of never seeing Yen Sid and Vor again. Those two were the only adults in the Ninth that Riku was actually going to miss. While they had already said their private goodbyes the night before, he still turned to Vor and offered a sharp salute to the woman who had trained him for six years to be his lover's sword and shield. Vor saluted back, her eyes watering as she nodded her approval. "Have fun," she mouthed silently as the door mechanism of the shuttle slid down. 

As the cabin pressurized itself for takeoff, Riku put his arm around his boyfriend and turned to look at him. They grinned at each other as the ship shuddered its way through pre-flight checks. 

"This is it," Riku said.

"This is it," Sora echoed. 

One flight through deep space to reach the First House, whatever welcoming formalities were expected as representatives of the Ninth, and then they could drop the act and finally be themselves. 

They quickly dragged their trunks into the cabin's storage compartment before the ship began its ascent. Riku heard a soft noise from Sora's robes as his boyfriend sat down next to him. Riku shrugged. He had no idea whether necromancers carrying pockets full of grave dirt to make the loss of their powers in deep space away from a thanergic planet more bearable was a real thing or something that only happened in the comics that Vor had managed to smuggle over the years, but he didn't begrudge Sora taking that extra precaution. 

Once they cleared orbit, Sora walked up to the front of the ship to see if he could lower the privacy barrier separating them from the cockpit. His shout moments later had Riku immediately running to his side. He caught up to find an empty cockpit, then looked around the shuttle confirm. No one else was aboard but them. 

"Remote piloting," Riku commented. 

"Do you have any idea how _expensive_ that is?" Sora asked rhetorically. 

"That's because the First House doesn't give landing clearance without explicit invitation," Riku reminded him.

Sora quickly found the button to talk to the remote navigator and started excitedly asking questions before the navigator eventually hung up on them. Riku chuckled softly, mildly amused that Sora had finally run into someone who couldn't handle the necromancer's insatiable curiosity. He hugged Sora as his boyfriend pouted, and together they leaned against the shuttle's only window to watch the stars go by. 

Their flight path did not bring them close enough to have visual contact with any of the other Houses, but in his mind's eye, Riku could imagine the other planets in the system as they sailed inward toward the star Dominicus. He could mentally picture the famed red spot of Koniortos - Jupiter, Kairi said it had been called in the era before the Resurrection - swirling in the distance when the navigator came back to announce that the shuttle had crossed the Fifth House's orbital path. 

The trip was over much quicker than either boy would have liked. Barely an hour after they left the Ninth House, they arrived at their final destination. 

From orbit, the House of the First was like a blazing fire in Riku's face compared to the lightless gloom of the Ninth. The planet's surface was covered with water, a deep blue sphere broken up only by masses of green and brown as land rose above the surface. While Sora gaped in wonder as the masses of green that they both knew were plant life - a rarity in the House of the Ninth - Riku's eyes drifted towards ugly grey scars that dotted the surface, the ruins of a civilization long since dead. The Lord of the House of the First had resurrected the dying world, but it had been nine thousand years since the Necrolord Prime last set foot upon the birthplace of his empire, with only a handful of priests to maintain his temple on an empty planet. 

The original names of the planets in the home system had been lost to the ravages of time, but while the other Houses had renamed the worlds they lived on, the First house had never been renamed. As far as the Nine Houses were concerned, it was and always had been simply The First. 

But Kairi knew secrets older than the empire, and was probably the only person other than the emperor himself who knew the lost name of humanity's cradle: 

Earth. 

Riku chuckled softly as Sora pressed his face up against the window, soaking up the sight of more color than either of them had ever seen in their lives. Sora blinked as he pulled away, then tried to shade his eyes with his hand to look again and get another look at the view. Though his own focus was on the seven other shuttles lined up in orbit over the planet, Riku was just as impressed as Sora was. After spending their entire lives in the cold, dark catacombs of the Ninth, seeing so much light and color in person felt incredibly surreal. 

After five minutes of taking in the beauty outside, the nagivator's voice called out over the communication."

"They've finished scanning your craft, Your grace," the man began. "Landing clearance has been granted, and you're free to leave orbit."

With a lurch, the thrusters kicked in, and the ship slowly began to glide down towards the planet, the shuttles of the other seven houses drifting to do the same. Friction flames ringed the shuttle as they entered the atmosphere, leaving Sora and Riku amazed at the colors of the sky compared to the airless void outside the habitable bubble of the Ninth. The hum of the engines increased in pitch until it was almost a scream, the cabin re-pressurizing itself for atmospheric flight. As the ship accelerated towards it's final destination, the brightness finally became too much for Riku, and he turned away from the window. Sora tried to tough it out, but a moment later he too was overwhelmed. 

Finally, the shuttle slowed and touched down with a loud _thunk_. 

Sora turned and grinned at his cavalier-slash-boyfriend. They were finally here. The two lovers only had to wait a moment before a loud click sounded as something outside the ship unlatched the preasure seals, and light beamed through the hatch as the door finally opened to let them out. 

Warm air rushed into the passenger cabin and made their robes sway a bit in the breeze. Sora raced out the door before the hatch was even open all the way. Riku smiled and shook his head with a quiet laugh before he followed his necromancer out onto the docking ramp. 

Outside the ship, Riku found himself standing on a massive metal docking platform above the ocean outside what he suspected was the only structure the First House had built on this planet after the Resurrection. From this distance, he could tell the castle's gardens were filled with the withered husks of dead trees, while slimey, viney overgrowth climbed the stone walls. Most of the fortress' white towers had crumbled over the millennia, and the metal of the docking cradles was covered in salt from the sea water.

But Sora looked at it like it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Not that Riku could blame him. The decay of the building aside, it was still impressive. 

_And besides,_ Riku thought, _I love how he can find such joy in the world around us like this._

Riku noticed someone approach and tapped Sora on the shoulder. The two boys knelt for the welcoming formalities as a tall man with a long white beard came over to greet them. 

"Hail to the Lord of the Ninth House," the man's aged voice called out. "Hail to his cavalier! Oh, hail, hail! Hail to the child of the far-off, shadowed jewel of our Empire! What a happy day." 

The man wore a gray coat over tan robes and a large, pointy hat the same color as his coat. 

"Hail to the House of the First," Sora echoed. "Hail to the King Undying."

"Hail to the Lord Over the River," the priest went on. "And welcome to his House! Blessed Lord of the Ninth, the Reverend Son! It has been most of this myriad since the last time the Ninth has visited the First House. Welcome, Lord Sora and Riku the Ninth. Please stand and be honored once you have finished your prayers, then join us in the sanctum. I am Odin, keeper of the First House and servant of the Necrolord Prime. As I stand as a representative of the merciful God Above Death, you may call me Teacher. I hope that one day you will call Him Teacher and Master, and that I might call you Sora the First. Be at rest." 

Riku the Ninth rose with his necromancer, exchanging glances of disappointment, frustrated at their chance to shed the mask of devoutness being denied. When Odin wasn't looking, he reached over and squeezed Sora's hands reassuringly. They would figure something out. White-robed skeletons sprinted from open double doors along the side of the castle toward the spaces between the shuttles. The bone constructs used long metal poles to work the mechanisms for the latches that kept the shuttles sealed against the vacuum of space, working in lockstep like reanimated workers always did. 

Then came the living, emerging from their ships in pairs to stand awkwardly on the docks. After spending their entire lives in a sea of monocromatic face paint with only three other people who shared their taste in color palette, it was dizzying for Riku to see so many people who weren't Ninth. 

At the opposite end of the row, a tall man with blond hair stood in plan robes next to a cavalier with black braids. 

A blue-haired woman and her brunette cavalier emerged from the shuttle next to the first. 

A head of pink hair emerged accompanied by a pair of blonde pigtails. 

Two men - one with red hair, one with blue - leaned against the hull of their ship. 

A short man in blue robes stomped out of his shuttle, his green-robed cavalier trailing behind him. 

"There are only six shuttles," Riku commented. "The emperors' summons called for eight pairs."

"Very observant," Odin remarked jovially. "We hold this House as sacred to our Lord the Emperor, and we take the security of holy land such as this very seriously. There is no need for concern. There are simply a few irregularities to be sorted out concerning the House of the Third and the House of the Seventh." 

"Really?" Sora chimed in, unable to hide his curiosity. Behind him, the skeletons began unloading luggage from all of the shuttles.

"Yes," Odin replied. "The House of the Third has built a reputation for pushing boundaries. And as for the House of the Seventh...."

Whatever Odin was about to say next was cut off by the roar of engines as the two missing shuttles finally landed, blowing hot wind over everyone as the engines cooled. The skeletons immediately set to work opening up the shuttles to the atmosphere while a living priest went up to each arriving craft. The two new ships had landed in the vacant berths between the Ninth House shuttle and the remaining five, the Third's touching down close enough for Sora and Riku to see who was inside.

The hatch opened in the Third House shuttle and Riku swore he was seeing double. He turned to look at his lover standing beside him with a look of bewilderment on his face, confirming that Riku wasn't hallucinating the resemblance he saw between the boy standing beside him and the necromancer from the Third. Were it not for the gold eyes and raven hair, looking at the necromancer from the Third was like looking at Sora's reflection. Were the logistics not impossible, Riku would have thought they were twins separated at birth.

The lookalike was dressed head to toe in a black coat with lining the color of fresh blood, while beside him walked a boy of equal stature with golden hair and bright clothes, the complete opposite of his companion. And behind them walked the cavalier, his light hair not quite the same shade of silver as Riku's. The doppelganger must have felt them staring, because he turned to snear at them as he walked past. Seeing such an angry expression on a face that looked so much like Sora was discomforting, and Riku turned to Odin and found the man whispering quietly with the priest who had greeted the trio. He leaned slowly forward to evesdrop, but only managed to catch brief snatches.

"inflexible"

"the household's backing"

"say they were born at the exact"

"both the adept"

Odin waved the priest off with a chuckle. "What can we do?"

"But it's impossible for-" the man's fellow priest objected. 

"It will only cause trouble at the end," Odin interrupted. "And that will be limited to them alone." 

As the priest left, a commotion from the Seventh House shuttle drew their attention. The hatch had opened and out walked a figure with long, rust-colored hair and a long white dress. They slowly stepped forward on shaking legs, and promptly fainted into arms of the priest who waited by their shuttle. The old man was entirely unprepared for it and his legs and arms buckled from the sudden wait. Riku caught sight of bloodstains on the priest's white robe as Sora moved without thinking. 

While Riku had frozen to analyze the situation, Sora had acted on instinct. His legs moved automatically to carry him toward the scene, and he quickly scooped the figure from the struggling arms of the priest. Despite his own lack of muscles, Sora gently lowered the figure to the ground as the priest took deep breaths and steadied himself.

In response to Sora's good deed, Riku grimaced in anger as a tall boy with a wide-brimmed hat stepped out of the shuttle and leveled a cavalier's rapier at the back of Sora's neck. Riku's vision went white with anger that someone would dare threaten Sora, and he rushed over, whipping out his own rapier and leveling it against the Seventh cavalier's throat. 

"Back. Off," he warned. 

"Guys," Sora interrupted. "Give her some air." Riku glared at the cavalier before taking a quick glance at the figure in Sora's arms. 

The first thing that Riku noticed is that she was far too skinny, and the white dress that clung to her body was marred by spots of blood. Her skin looked almost transparent, to the point where Riku could see the dark lines of her vains. Her eyelids fluttered open as she looked up at the scene unfolding around her, then immediately lurched into another coughing fit, clots of blood flying from her mouth. As her cough subsided, her teal eyes widened. 

"Brain," she said frantically. "Stand down. You'll get us in trouble." 

Her cavalier - Brain - removed the edge of his sword from Sora's neck. With the threat to his necromancer's life passed, Riku withdrew his own blade. The girl broke into another coughing fit, apologizing profusely for her cavalier's overprotectiveness."

"No harm done," Sora reassured her. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay after you fainted." 

With the threat of violence gone, the priest dropped to his knees and unwound the rainbow scarf at his waist. The man hesitated for a moment, but the girl nodded imperiously and he started wiping the blood away from her mouth. Considering the circumstances, the man was far less disconcerted by the health of the Seventh House necromancer. If anything, he seemed oddly reverent.

"Is it truly so advanced as this, Duchess?" the man asked in an old, weary voice. 

"Yes," the girl answered. 

"You should not have come my lady," he said sadly. 

"But isn't it beautiful that I did?" she asked him. Turning her attention back to Sora and Riku she instructed her cavalier to help her up so that they could apologize for the incident. Sora reassured her that there were no hard feelings, though Riku did warn her to make sure her cavalier kept his sword away from them. Brain's only response to this was to nod silently at Strelitiza's prompting. 

"Where are my manners?" the girl asked rhetorically. "I never introduced myself properly. I'm Strelitzia, duchess of Castle Rhodes, and this is Brain the Seventh, my cavalier primary. On behalf of the Seventh House, I thank you for your assistance." 

After saying their goodbyes and offering well wishes to the Seventh heir for her health, they two boys from the Ninth House turned to head inside. Riku spared a careful glance back at the Seventh House duo, and Strelitzia looked as if the incident had been the highlight of her day. Riku could have sworn she even gave him a wink.

The eyes of the other six Houses were on him and Sora now as they walked down the dock toward where Odin was speaking with the other priest. The two old men old man turned and came over when he saw them coming. 

"A blood flaw runs through the ruling House of the Seventh," Odin explained. "Most who carry the gene are spared, but to a few the illness is fatal." 

Sora frowned. 

"And Lady Strelitzia was diagnosed?" he asked, although Riku knew that Sora had already guessed the answer.

"She was not meant to reach sixteen," the other priest explained clinically before gesturing for everyone to follow him inside. 

_Sixteen,_ Riku thought. He felt Sora reach over and squeeze his hand, and the cavalier knew that he was going to have to talk to his boyfriend about this later. He knew from Sora's touch that his lover was already thinking about how unfair it was that they were going to become Lyctors and live forever while it this girl would be lucky if she even made it through the week. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so we get our first glimpses at the other parties in these necromantic trials. I gave everyone just enough information to recognize which Kingdom Hearts characters are present without telling who is from which house. 
> 
> The dialogue from Odin and the priests is either quoted or paraphrased from the books since he's currently just providing exposition. 
> 
> And yeah, just casually revealing that the Nine Houses were all established in our solar system in the far future. The first book hinted at this but it wasn't officially confirmed until the second book.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty, folks. After this chapter, I'm taking a hiatus from this fic for a few weeks while I figure out how to fill in the middle parts of this fic to get to the end I've envisioned.

The light that came through the wrecked ceiling of the atrium they were directed to sit in - which was so large it could have contained the entire mausoleum of the Ninth House and still have space left over - was almost as blinding as when they first stepped off the shuttle. Everything in the room - from the walls to the furniture - had fallen into disrepair over the millennia, but the ruin of the First House was completely different from Drearburh. Riku looked back on the Ninth as a place were old things withered and decayed, while the House of the First had been abandoned but still looked ready to use with a little bit of cleaning and maintenance. He smiled as the necromancer beside him marveled at every step they took as the surface of the floor shifted from marble to mosaic tiles to actual, real wood. Sora gaped in wonder at the two staircases that lead up to the second floor, where moss-covered columns supported the ruined ceiling. 

The skeleton servants delivered tea while Odin and the two other priests sat down on the edge of a dried up fountain made from marble and glass. All of them took their seats on assorted couches and benches near the fountain, although Brain waited for Strelitzia's instruction before sitting down himself. Everyone except the priests sipped their tea without conversation. 

Once everyone was finally seated, Odin broke the ice to lead the group in prayer. 

"Let the King Undying, ransomer of death, scourge of death, vindicator of death, look upon the Nine Houses and hear their thanks. Let the whole of everything entrust themselves to him. Let those across the river pledge beyond the tomb to the adept divine, the first among necromancers. Thanks be to the Ninefold Resurrection. Thanks be to the Lyctor divinely ordained. He is Emperor and he became God: he is God, and he became emperor." 

Riku was bewildered by the unfamiliar words. Ninth House liturgy only ever featured one prayer, and the rest was call-and-response or musical knucklebones. Other than himself and Sora, Brain was the only person not reciting along with Odin like they'd been hearing it all their lives. As the last word faded, Riku blinked to hear Odin request that the arrivals from the Ninth House deliver their own prayers. 

In fairness, it had been phrased as a question. But the old man's tone made it more of a command. To his credit, Sora didn't hesitate. His hand squeezing Riku's leg in a death grip before he stood was the only sign of his discomfort. The faces of the other heirs were a mix of curious and bored, with the exception of Strelitzia's enthusiasm, as Sora began to speak. The expressions of the others were a mixture of bewilderment and outright hostility, forcing Riku to confront for the first time the reality of how different the Ninth House was from the rest of the empire - especially when it came to their religious practices. The tension in the room was only broken when Odin and his priests expressed their delight at Sora's performance. 

"Just as it always was," sighed one of the other priests whose name Riku didn't know yet. The man sounded almost ecstatic despite the dirge that had come from Sora's mouth. 

"Continuity is a marvelous thing," said the other. 

"And now, I welcome you to Canaan House," Odin finished as he addressed the gathered pairs. "Will someone bring me the box?"

The room fell silent as one of the robed skeletons carried over a small wooden chest. Odin gently threw it open and began calling out names. 

"Terra the Second."

A tall, muscular man with spiky brown hair snapped to attention, his salute highlighting the cleanliness of his Cohort uniform. At Odin's beckoning, he marched forward toward the fountain, at which point Odin placed a dull iron ring in his hand, the old man treating it with the reverence of a precious jewel. To Terra the Second's credit, he took it without hesitating, saluted, and went to sit back down. 

"Ephemer the Third," Odin called out, beginning the pattern of cavaliers coming up to receive these mysterious rings. There was no time for Riku to dwell on the frustration at how quickly they'd been shoved back into the role of Ninth House devotees as soon as they arrived on the First, his attention focused on paying attention so he could hear his name being called as Odin went down the list of cavaliers. Brain the Seventh. Dilan the Eighth. And finally...

"Riku the Ninth," Odin finally reached the end of the roll call. Riku walked up quietly to the fountain and received the ring in his hand. It wasn't a perfect loop, as he'd assumed from a distance, but a twist that overlapped itself. The iron ring could be locked through a hole bored into one end while the other end had a ninety degree bend so that fiddling the bend through the hole could be used to open and close the ring. Despite it's small size, the ring felt heavy in Riku's hand, and Sora was so eager to inspect it that he practically snatched it away. 

For a few long moments, nobody spoke. Riku was about to work up the nerve to ask what these rings were for when Odin spoke. 

"Now," he said. "The tenets of the First House, and the grief of the King Undying."

Riku tensed in anticipation, expecting another lengthy liturgy. In his peripheral vision, he noticed Sora do the same, along with everyone else in the room except for Brain, who remained as stoic as he'd been since he stepped off the ship. 

"I will not tell you what you already know," Odin began. "I seek only to add context. The Lyctors were not born immortal. They were given eternal life, which is not at all the same thing. Sixteen of them came here a myriad ago, eight adepts and the eight who would later be known as the first cavaliers, and it was here that they ascended. Those eight necromancers were the first after the Lord of Resurrection; they have spread his assumption across the blackness of space, to those places where others could never reach. Each of them alone is more powerful than nine Cohorts acting as one. But even the divine Lyctors can pass away, despite their power and despite their swords... and they have done so, slowly, over these ten thousand years. The emperor's grief has waxed with time. It is only now, in the twilight of the original eight, that he has listened to his last Lyctors, who beg for reinforcement." 

The old man paused to swirl the cup of tea, managing to do so by simply twitching his wrist. 

"You have been nominated to attempt the terrible challenge of replacing them," Odin continued. "And it is not at all a sure thing. If you ascend to Lyctor, or if you try and fail - the Kindly Lord knows what is being as of you is titanic. You are the honoured heirs and guardians of the eight Houses. Great duties await you. If you do not find yourself a galaxy, it is not so bad to find yourself a star, nor to have the Emperor know that the both of you attempted this great ordeal."

"Or the _all_ of you, as the case may be," the man added with an amused nod to the Third House trio. 

"Cavaliers," he went on. "If your adept is found wanting, you have failed! If you are found wanting, your adept has failed! And if one or both is wanting, then we will not ask you to wreck your lives against this impossible task. You will not be forced if you cannot continue onward - through single or mutual failure - or make the decision not to go on."

The man looked vaguely over the assembled pairs, searching their expressions as if he was seeing them again for the first time. Riku could hear Sora biting his own lip as the weight of the stakes they were up against bore down on him.

"This is not a pilgrimage where your safety is assured," Odin continued. "You will undergo trials, possibly dangerous ones. You will work hard, you will suffer. I must speak candidly - you may even die... But I see no reason not to hope that I may behold eight new Lyctors by the end of this, joined together with their cavaliers, heir to a joy and power that has sung for ten thousand years." 

The sixteen new arrivals soaked up his words like desert and rock absorbing water. Riku felt a chill down his spine at the elder priest's words. 

From there, the old priests moved on to more practical explanations. Odin detailed how their every need would be met here in Canaan House. Each set of necromancer and cavalier would be given their own rooms, while the skeletons would wait on their needs. Any chambers not set aside for another House's bedrooms could be repurposed as a study space or just to relax. All books and public areas of the citadel were available to them. And then came the part that put Riku's nerves on edge. 

"We live as penitents do-" Odin explained. "Simple food, no letters, no visits. You shall never use a communication network. It is not allowed in this place. Now that you are here, you must understand that you are here until we send you home or until you succeed. We hope you will be too busy to be lonely or bored."

 _So we're stuck here,_ Riku thought to himself as he digested the priest's words. 

"As for your instruction here," Odin moved on to the next subject. "This is what the First House asks of you." All the necromancers in the room drew breath in near perfect unison, along with quite a few of their cavaliers - Riku among them. Sora looked like he was torn between nervousness at the tasks before them and excitement at what they were about to hear. Riku, for his part, fully expected an outlined syllabus filled with classes that Sora would probably hate and try to skip out on in favor of finding the information in a book hidden somewhere in the castle. Or asking Riku if they could switch places and let him go to Riku's _Swords III_ class and get out of _Double Bones with Doctor Skelebone._

"We ask," Odin began. "That you never open a locked door unless you have permission." 

Everyone waited quietly, expecting the priest to follow up with further instructions. Instead the man simply stared back at them with a vague smile as he rested his hands on his thighs. Riku heard a soft _ping_ of a nail hitting the floor in a corner of the room somewhere. 

"That's it," Odin said. 

All but one set of eyes in the room that had lit up at the thought of _Double Bones with Doctor Skelebone_ dimmed in disappointment. Someone managed to timidly ask what the training was to attain Lyctorhood. 

"Well, _I_ don't know," Odin answered unhelpfully. The air in the room went cold at his words. A single look at the elderly man's kind, open-hearted face to confirm that he wasn't messing with them. A blend of confusion and outrage swept the room. 

"You're the ones who will ascend to Lyctor," Odin explained. "Not I. I am certain the way will become clear to you without any input from us. Why, who are we to teach the first after the King Undying?"

After a final greeting welcoming them all to Canaan House, skeletons arrived to guide each House pair to the wing of the castle that had been assigned to them. Sora and Riku's guide lead them deep into the fortress, past ruined statues within the wreckage of Canaan House. They passed a variety of rooms that they could not help but stop and marvel at along the way. The skeleton was insistent on guiding them to their quarters without delay, so Riku made a mental map of places that he and Sora wanted to come back and explore later. 

When they arrived downstairs they discovered that the sky had changed from a bright blue to featureless lumps of darkness. While timekeeping on the Ninth was divided into a day and night cycle, it was their first time actually experiencing the phenomenon in person. A glance out the large window confirmed that their room was directly below the docks. A few exterior lights cast the shadows of the iron strust supporting the landing pad above them while the dark ocean roared beneath them. With the absence of the sun, the exhaustion of their day had finally set in, and left both necromancer and cavalier feeling quite tired. 

Sora and Riku had each been given their own bed, but in a quirk of either coincidence or foresight on the part of whoever had last arranged the furniture of this room, Riku's bed had been placed at the foot of Sora's. It went without saying that Riku's bed would not be seeing much use in the days to come, so by silent mutual agreement the extra bed was turned into a storage space. They took turns cleaning the paint and makeup off of their faces, and Riku found himself echoing Sora's infectious grin as Odin's words had finally sunk in. 

Now that the opening formalities were out of the way, the necromancers and cavaliers had the run of the place as long as they obeyed that one single rule. There would be no daily prayers or worship services where Sora would have to don The Mask. They could wear whatever they wanted. Be their real selves around new people. As they climbed into bed and Sora fell asleep beside him, Riku couldn't help but chuckle in dark amusement at what Odin had unwittingly unleased upon Canaan House. Sora's curiosity when he wasn't pretending to be the loyal heir to the Ninth House made him a force of chaos that none of the priests, necromancers, and cavaliers assembled here were prepared for. 

Before he could fall asleep himself, a loud grinding sound from outside the window diverted Riku's attention toward the dock above them. The sound of metal scraping on metal woke Sora from his sleep with a jolt. Riku gave him a quick hug to assure his lover that they were alright, and Sora turned to join him in looking out the window just in time to watch one of the expensive shuttles fall silently from the side of the landing platform. Then another shuttle fell. And another. Until all eight shuttles had joined each other in the ocean bellow. With the only transport off the planet gone, the noise receded to the pitter patter of skeleton feet on the docks as the reanimated bone servants walked away from the landing platform. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I quoted around 90% of Odin and the priests' dialogue in this chapter from the books because we know so little about Odin's personality in KH canon that it's difficult for me to think of how he might deliver Teacher's exposition differently (and why I didn't make anything up for the other priests is a spoiler if you haven't already read _Gideon the Ninth_ ). 
> 
> And yes, in Locked Tomb canon, the formal address for a cavalier is [name] the [House number].  
> for example, the cavalier roster for this fic includes:  
> Terra the Second  
> Ephemer the Third  
> Isa the Fourth  
> Goofy the Fifth  
> Elrena the Sixth  
> Brain the Seventh  
> Dilan the Eighth  
> Riku the Ninth
> 
> And to complete the set as one last treat before this fic goes on hiatus, the corresponding necromancers are Aqua (Second House), Ventus & Vanitas (Third House), Lea (Fourth House), Donald (Fifth House), Lauriam (Sixth House), Strelitzia (Seventh House), Even (Eighth House), and of course, Sora (Ninth House)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I managed to finalize my outline for the remainder of the fic weeks ago but I didn't get around to finishing this chapter until just this morning, so apologies for the long wait.

The light of Dominicus woke Riku the next morning, the smell of mold invading his nostrils as he opened his eyes. Even in an unfamiliar bed, Sora was pressed against his side like usual, yawing as Riku hugged him closer. Riku tasted salt on his tongue as he looked around to inspect their quarters. The rooms stretched from the floor all the way to the surprisingly low ceilings, the shadows from the docks overhead providing shade to dim the brightness of the distant star. Beams of daylight bounced off the black crystal chandeliers, the décor obviously chosen with the tastes of Ninth House emissaries more devoted to the Shadow Cult's aesthetic in mind. 

Despite having had time to adjust to the brightness yesterday, the light gave Riku a headache after the darkness of sleep. The doors were slightly above the main level of the room, stone ramps rising up to close the gap. Very few pieces of furniture were still holding together after the millennia of disuse, but even the shabbiest pieces were still fancier than even the most precious heirlooms of the Ninth. With one arm wrapped around his boyfriend, Riku reached out for his sword with the other. One of the first things Vor had trained into him in his early days as Sora's cavalier was to make sure one knew where their rapier was at all times. 'A cavalier who allowed their sword to be stolen while they slept was no cavalier at all', she had said. 

After a few moments, he felt the gently warmth of Sora's lips on his cheeks that signaled his lover had woken from slumber, and he angled his head back to enough that Sora's next kiss landed right on his lips. He smiled at Sora's surprise, letting the chuckle reverberate through their lips until they were both forced to come up for air. Riku knew they should probably talk about their plans for retracing the steps of the original Lyctors, but Riku knew that it would be a while. 

Despite his habitual dozing off, Sora had never been allowed the chance to truly sleep in back in Drearburh. His responsibilities as heir to the House of the Ninth meant that he always had things to take care of in the early mornings, both to ensure the day to day running of the House, and to ensure that his parents' deaths and reanimation would not be discovered. Now, with no set schedules and no other responsibilities, Sora could finally sleep as late as he wanted. As a cavalier, Riku knew he should probably make sure Sora tried to stick to a consistent schedule, but as a boyfriend, he couldn't say no when he saw Sora draped over him, looking truly at peace for the first time in years. 

Once Sora decided he had gotten his fill of sleep, they finally got out of bed. After a quick change into some of the casual clothing they'd smuggled to the Ninth but never been allowed to wear in public before, the first order of business was a tour of their own quarters now that it was no longee too dark for them to fully appreciate their surroundings. 

Unlike the washrooms of the Ninth, the bathroom in their living space was big enough to walk around in, the stone walls and marble floor leanding it an air of grandeur despite the spots of mold on the floor tiles. The thing that most amazed Sora was the fact that they had a sink, something that the two Ninth boys had only ever seen in the comics Vor had snuck them for Sora's tenth birthday. A tub of antibac gel sat next to it alongside a bar of soap, which Sora's talents confirmed was _not_ made from human fat like the soap used in Drearburh. Riku, on the other hand, was most amazed by the weird nozzle they found in a rectangular chamber in the middle of the sonic. Pulling a lever next to the tap had showered him with water, and after a life of growing up with water as a precious resource to be used as carefully as possible, something that used that much water seemed the height of luxury. 

Once the inspection of their quarters was complete, Sora's growling stomach sent them in search of food. Riku's sharp memory enabled the two to retrace their steps to the atrium, and from there they followed Sora's nose, the sound of foot bones on carpet echoing through the halls as they searched. Sora's sense of smell led them to a glass-roofed room filled with the clash of modern and ancient. Netting had been set up to cover holes in the glass ceiling that let in birds, while an advanced filtration system beside an old concrete fountain filtered the water so it would be clean enough to drink. The wooden tables looked like they'd been cleaned up with antibac and repaired with replacement parts cannibalized from at least eight other tables of completely different designs. 

The room was big enough to seat at least fifty people, and felt empty even with the representatives of the other Houses seated at various tables around the room. A murmur of conversation greeted Sora and Riku as they walked in the door, but silence fell as the other Houses did a double take at the attire of the Ninth House delegation. Riku kept his face impassive as he and Sora looked around the room for an empty table. They in the room made an effort to hide it when Riku was looking, but he could tell that everyone was staring at him and Sora with bewildered expressions on their faces. He could only imagine the gossip that would spread behind their backs, but for once, he couldn't bring himself to care. 

The fact that the skeletal servants had dumped their spaceships into the ocean and Odin had them on a communications lockdown meant that there was no chance for that gossip to spread off-world. And Sora had told Riku this morning his hope that by the time they ascended to Lyctorhood, the two of them would be the least interesting conversation topic for the other Houses to call home about. 

Eventually, the two boys found a table in the corner against the wall where they could hold hands without being seen. Sora turned to Riku and was about to make a comment about the reception they'd received this morning when a skeleton placed a bowl of soup and a plate of bred on the table in front of him. Riku smiled and resisted the urge to chuckle at Sora's awestruck face, reaching over to wipe the drool that started to drip from his boyfriend's open mouth. 

Not that Riku could blame him for staring. It had taken Sora years of practice to give the skeletons he animated this level of awareness and fine motor control, but there was a fluidity to the First House skeletons that Sora's bone constructs lacked. The amount of complex programming incorporated into the theorems must have taken ages to prefect, and would certainly have taken even the most powerful of Sora's ancestors decades to finalize the theorems. Even as they dug into their food, Riku couldn't help but be impressed. 

As they ate, Riku looked around the room, taking in the sight of their fellow postulants. The two men from the Fifth House sat off by themselves, the duo a study of contrasts. The necromancer was short, dressed in blue and yellow robes with a dark, wide-brimmed hat on his head. The Fifth cavalier was tall and lanky, dressed in green and orange and wearing a small cap with goggles on them. The necromancer of the Fifth House cast suspicious glances at everyone in the room, while his cavalier caught Riku's gaze and offered a friendly wave that Sora returned with a small, cautious smile. 

One thing Sora's parents had impressed upon him from an early age - besides his importance as the future of the House responsible for ensuring the Ninth's survival - was the importance of the Ninth House maintaining it's political independence. The Third House and the Fifth might have the most political influence within the empire, but the Ninth House could ever be allowed to fall under the aegis of either. A knot formed in Riku's stomach at the second test of their newfound freedom. Even if they had the run of the place until they found the secret of Lyctorhood, the interactions between the other houses still held significant political weight. Sensing that Sora's thoughts were taking a self-deprecating turn, Riku gently squeezed his boyfriend's hand under the table to reassure him as they examined the other Houses. 

The Second, Third, Fourth, and Eighth Houses sat together in a loose archipelago around the room. Close enough for gossip and small talk, but spread out enough that they weren't all sitting at the same table. Second and Fourth sat closest together, while the Third and Eighth sat on either side of them. Eighth was farthest from the group, the two older men eating silently and barely acknowledging the conversations happening nearby. The Third House table was mostly split between the blonde necromancer and the cavalier - what was his name again? Ephemer? - chatting animatedly with the pairs from the Second and Fourth, while the Sora lookalike sulked quietly. 

Riku still couldn't figure out for the life of him why the other necromancer for the Third House looked so much like Sora. As far as they knew, Sora had no blood relatives outside of the Ninth House. At least, none living. But if this other necromancer was some kind of distant cousin, that didn't explain why the uncanny resemblance between the two of them. The double must have realized that someone was watching him, because he looked around and glared hatefully when he caught Riku staring. The Ninth cavalier quickly looked away. 

It was then that Riku realized that he hadn't seen Strelitzia and Brain. Nor had he seen the pair from the Sixth House either. A glance at his boyfriend confirmed for Riku that Sora had noticed the absence of the Seventh House as well. It would make sense given her condition for Strelitzia to take meals in her quarters rather than struggle all the way down to the derelict dining hall for food, but it was a sobering reminder that the girl didn't have much time left. 

While Sora and Riku ate, the other Houses gradually began to disperse from the room, each setting off to explore the mysteries of the First House on their own. The Eighth House was the first to leave, followed by the Third at the Sora lookalike's insistence. Second and Fourth left next, with the pair from the House of the Fifth walking out last. Nearly all gave the two teens of the Ninth House curious looks as they left, although the Fifth House cavalier looked more concerned than anything else. Eventually, Sora and Riku were alone in the dining hall, which Sora took as their cue to move their clasped hands onto the top of the table. Riku glanced around nervously to make sure no one could see, but breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he and Sora were truly alone. 

While breaking from their reconceived expectations of the Ninth might make Riku and Sora some new friends among the other Houses, the one part of themselves they truly had to be careful about hiding was their relationship. 

While the Fifth House bent tradition by allowing a person's spouse to become their cavalier, romantic relationships between a necromancer and their cavalier were considered taboo at best. At worst, they were considered blasphemy against the ideals of the Necromancer Divine. From what Riku had read, it was rare but permitted for a necromancer to marry another necromancer's cavalier, but they could never be allowed to have a relationship with their own. 

Their private heresy was one of three secrets that risked bringing the wrath of the other Houses down on them and the Ninth, so despite the freedom to be themselves that the First House offered, there were limits to how fully Riku and Sora could express themselves. 

When the two boys finished their meal, the skeleton returned to retrieve their empty dishes and provide them with some tea. Sora grimaced as he drank the warm liquid, still unused to the heat of the drink after a lifetime of cold beverages on the Ninth. Riku chuckled at his boyfriend's expense, stopping only when Sora playfully elbowed him in the side. 

Once the servant returned to take away their empty cups, the couple were now faced with having the rest of the day to themselves and no set schedule for how to spend it. While the other Houses had most likely gotten started on attempting to find clues toward how to become Lyctors, Kairi's secrets gave Sora and Riku enough of a head start that they didn't feel the need to start sprinting right from the starting line. With nothing else to do and no concrete plans for the moment, their first order of business was exploring all the nooks and crannies full of ancient secrets and mysteries that Canaan House had to offer. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I toyed with a few different versions of this chapter before settling on just having it focus on Riku's thoughts as he and Sora begin their first day at Canaan House. Originally I wanted to have him and Sora share conversations with either Donald and Goofy or the Vanitas, Ven, and Ephemer trio, but I couldn't think of a way to make the interactions feel organic to their characters, so I put those off for future chapters.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait. Between work and my motivation being elsewhere, it took me a while to get this chapter written out in a way that I was happy with. Moving forward I'm going to try and have a semi-regular update schedule again, but I can't make any promises.

Canaan House proved itself to be a labyrinth of courtyards and corridors. Several times, Riku and Sora had taken so many turns that they'd ended up back on a landing that they'd passed half an hour ago. The young couple the rest of their morning trying every door they could think of, at one point even ending up outside on one of the terraces, looking out at large slabs of concrete that stuck up from beneath the waves on one side of the castle.

There was a beauty to the First House that still lingered even as the old fortress creaked and decayed in places after eons without enough people there to use and maintain it. At one point Sora had stepped on a soft bit of floor board and nearly fell through to an empty space beneath.

A few hours after setting out from the dining room, they went down a flight of metal stairs that farther down than any of the staircases they'd encountered so far. The lights fizzled over the tiled floor as they reached the bottom, where they found a wooden door close to the stairs that had once been covered by a now-fallen tapestry. 

The dark door led to a long, windowless corridor that ended with a black stone door with heavy pillars on either side. A line of square lights in the ceiling illuminated the tile floor. The door frame was carved with leaves, serpents, and horned animal skulls. A relief containing five circles connected by lines in an pattern neither boy could recognize. There was no handle, knocker or doorknob, only a keyhole as deep as the length of Riku's thumb. Attempting to push the door inward confirmed that it was locked. 

Recalling Odin's instructions not to open a locked door without permission, they left the door alone for now and went back to the vestibule at the bottom of the stairs. Out of habit, Sora tacked the tapestry back up to cover the door. Now, the only thing left in the room with the fizzling lights were two enormous doors that groaned as the Ninth teens opened them. 

The doors led into a large chamber that reeked of chemicals while their footsteps echoed loudly across the cavernous room. A large rectangular pit dominated the space, it's bottom and sides lined with smaller tiles. It gave the oldest parts of the Ninth House some serious competition for the filthiest place Riku had ever seen. Metal ladders went down into the pit, secured to the sides by rusty poles, their purpose something that itched the back of Riku's mind with nagging familiarity. 

A quick inspection of the glass doors on the opposite end of the room confirmed that nothing else lay beyond the pit chamber besides a stone floored training room that had long since decayed from lack of use. It was then that the dots connected in Riku's mind and he remembered where he'd seen this type of pit before. 

"It's a swimming pool," he said, gesturing at the pit. 

There'd never been enough water for a pool on the Ninth. Like all resources, it was carefully rationed for every purpose, and with the number of mouths that needed to be fed and bodies that needed to be kept clean, budgeting water for something recreational had never been an option. Sora and Riku's only knowledge of swimming came from old books tucked into the back of the Ninth House library and the comics that Vor and Yen Sid smuggled them every year on their birthdays. 

Yet now here they stood in the seat of the First House seeing one in person for the very first time. Sure, it was empty at the moment but considering that Canaan House was surrounded by water, there would probably be no harm in asking Odin to have it restored. Worst case scenario, Riku and Sora could always fix it up by themselves in secret. 

The grin on Sora's face when Riku identified the pool was infectious, and without a word Sora turned and walked to the edge of the pool before hopping down into the shallow end. Seeing how the only exit was back the way they came, Riku shook his head with a silent laugh as he followed his boyfriend's lead. They walked hand in hand along the sloping bottom of the empty pool, stopping every few steps to make sure they were still alone before giving each other quick kisses. 

Eventually, they reached the end of the pool, and looked up to see the metal ladder hanging from the wall just out of reach. Riku figured it would be easier to walk back to the shallow end and climb out that way, but Sora managed to talk him into trying the ladder anyway. Riku was able to lift Sora high enough for the necromancer to reach the lowest step of the ladder and pull himself up the rest of the way. Once his boyfriend reached the deck and stepped fully out of the pool, Riku took a few steps back toward the opposite wall. Then, with a running start, Riku ran across the pool and let his momentum carry him up the wall until he could grab into the ladder. Once his foothold on the lowest rung was secure, Riku started to pull himself up. 

When he was halfway up the ladder, there was a loud metallic cracking sound. Riku felt a shudder in his feet, and suddenly the ladder dropped out from under him. On instinct he threw his hands up and managed to grab the ledge before he fell to the bottom of the pool. 

"I'm okay," he called out in response to Sora shouting his name. "For the most part."

Riku tried to pull himself up, but his muscles were already burning from the exertion of holding himself there, and he couldn't get himself high enough to leverage his weight onto the pool deck. Even Sora grabbing his arms and lifting wasn't enough. Riku glanced down. If he let go, the drop to the bottom of the pool would only be a little less than four feet. He might get bruised if he fell wrong, but the risk of broken bones was minimal. 

He was about to tell this to Sora when his boyfriend let go with one hand. The necromancer reached into his pockets and pulled out three finger bones taht he quickly tossed over Riku's shoulder down into the pool. 

A few spoken theorems and Riku heard the crackle of constructs generating below him before he felt a pair of skeletal hands pushing up on his boots. The weight on Riku's fingers eases as Sora's creation lifted him further up the wall. Sora grabbed his wrists again and continued to pull, but as Riku's chest cleared the edge of the deck, he heard the doors out of the room swing open. 

Before Riku could turn to look, the Fifth House cavalier was walking up to them. 

"Let me help," the tall man said as he reached over and grabbed the sides of Riku's upper body. Without waiting for permission, the cavalier effortlessly lifted Riku out of the pool and placed him gently back down on the deck. 

Riku blinked in stunned confusion as Sora let out a sight of relief. Behind them, the seven foot skeleton stood at the bottom of the empty pit, waiting for orders. With a wave of his finger, Sora directed the bone construct to begin walking towards the shallow end before he turned back to their unexpected rescuer. 

"We're lucky you guys got here when you did," he said. Riku nodded. While they would've gotten him out of the pool on their own anyway, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

"More like the big goof was worried about two teenagers wandering a derelict castle by themselves would get hurt and insisted on following you," a nasally voice replied as the Fifth House necromancer caught up with his cavalier. 

The cavalier in Riku was on guard and suspicious that the Fifth House had already taken an interest in Sora. He could practically see the memories of parental admonitions flashing before Sora's eyes. 

But there was a part of Riku that felt touched that there were people on the First House who recognized that he and Sora were just kids with too much responsibility on their shoulders. 

"Come on, Donald," the older cavalier said to his partner. "You were just as worried about 'em as I was." The Fifth necromancer deliberately looked away and tried not to make the accuracy of his shield's comment too obvious. 

"Well, we're glad you did," Sora replied. "Helped save us some time getting out of the pool." 

A growl from the Fifth cavalier's stomach made both teens aware of their own hunger. Riku spotted an ancient timepiece mounted on the wall at the opposite side of the pool informing them that it had been a few hours since breakfast. 

"Aww, shucks," The Fifth cavalier chuckled. "Looks like it's lunch time. Why don't you come with us and grab some lunch back at the cafeteria?" 

Riku and Sora looked at each other, communicating their thoughts silently with their eyebrows like Vor had taught them. Sora wanted to say yes, but his desire to make friends was at war with his loyalty towards his parents' vision of the Ninth House. Riku personally could care less what Sora's parents would think of "consorting" with a rival House, but he'd support whatever decision his boyfriend made. After a minute of silent conversation, Sora turned back to the Fifth House pair. 

"We'd like that," he said. 

Decision made, the four turned away from the empty pool and started making their way back towards the stairs. The Fifth cavalier - whose name was Goofy making small talk with Sora as they went. Riku smiled fondly at how easily his lover made friends, then quickly schooled his expression to one of bored neutrality when he caught the glint of suspicion in Donald's eyes. Now that he and Sora were interacting with another House, it was time to go back to keeping their relationship a secret. 


	8. Chapter 8

After their first meeting with the pair from the Fifth House, Sora and Riku's early days at Canaan House began to coalesce into a comfortable rhythm. Donald and Goofy had accompanied Sora and Riku for the rest of the day as they explored the ancient citadel before dropping the two off at the Ninth House sleeping quarters after dinner. The following morning, Riku rose with the dawn and went through his drills before Donald and Goofy's knocking finally dragged Sora from slumber. The Fifth House duo walked them down to the breakfast hall before Goofy finally convinced his necromancer to give the Ninth House couple some space.

Riku didn't _dislike_ the attention they received from the two adults, but it did take some getting used to. While the lectures on the importance of Ninth autonomy from Sora's parents had been seared into his mind, he could recognize the actions of the Fifth men as the protective instincts of parents. The mentions of Goofy being a father while Donald raised his nephews only served to confirm his suspicions. Riku honestly didn't know how to feel about that. Yen Sid and Vor had tried to be role models for him growing up but he saw them more as older friends and trusted mentors than as parents. Having people around actively invested in filling that void in his life was going to take some getting used to. 

Sora, on the other hand, soaked up the parental affection like a sponge. His own parents had never been the affectionate type even before they tried to hang him, so he was just as eager to fill that void. Even, he confided in Riku during their time alone, if he felt like he was betraying his parents by feeling more warmth and appreciation from two strangers than his own parents. Having never had parents growing up, Riku didn't know how to help his lover resolve that inner conflict except advise Sora to follow his heart. 

Their third day of exploring Canaan House was much the same as the prior two, but on the following morning the group found themselves approached by the cavalier from the House of the Eighth. The man's grey uniform with white gloves and black boots made him a distinctive sight as he strode towards their corner of the breakfast hall, his braided hair flowing behind him. The man introduced himself as Sir Dilan, cavalier primary to the Eighth House, and informed them that he had organized sparring matches for the cavaliers of all the houses. 

"Will the Fifth and the Ninth accept my invitation?" he asked, clearly expecting an immediate answer one way or another. While Riku had begrudgingly accepted Donald and Goofy appointing themselves as surrogate parents, he did not feel inclined towards socializing with the other Houses. Not to mention that he didn't want to part with Sora for long. Unfortunately, Goofy politely accepted the invitation on behalf of both their Houses, which meant that Riku would have to leave his necromancer's side for the next few hours. 

Before they left, he and Sora had discussed the issue in hushed tones. Sora assured him that he and Donald would be fine for a couple of hours, encouraging Riku to go out and have some fun for himself. Riku could sense that Sora's insecurities were beginning to surface, but he couldn't back out if they wanted to avoid inter-house gossip about their relationship. So he whispered reassurances in Sora's ears to quiet the doubts in his lover's mind (coupled with a promise to talk about the issue more later), then followed the two older men as Dilan led them through the winding hallways until they arrived in the pool room. 

In less than forty-eight hours, the room had transformed dramatically. A trio of skeletons were busy cleaning the grime out of the empty swimming pool with mops and buckets as the three living humans walked in. Meanwhile, a fourth construct was wiping down the glass double-doors that led to the training room. The smell of detergents and wood polish from the now-open room masked the stench of decay that Riku had detected the last time he and Sora had been here. The room still looked aging and decrepit, but now it was alive with the sound of swords clashing while two figures danced around each other on the flagstone dais that spread across the middle of the room. 

A fifth skeleton was cleaning out cobwebs and dust from one of the corners while the other cavaliers present watched the ongoing match. Riku spotted the Third cavalier cleaning his sword a moment after he found the boy's jacket and scarf hanging from a peg on the far wall. The Second wore a blue-grey jacket over the white uniform of a Cohort officer as he watched the blue-haired cavalier of the Fourth face off against the fierce blonde of the Sixth. The formal outfits the two had worn the first two days had been traded out for more casual attire better suited for intense morning workouts. The only one unaccounted for was Brain the Seventh. 

Riku stayed silent as Dilan the Eighth announced their arrival, letting Goofy and their hosts make the introductions. He felt awkward and out of place being here. He and Sora had been the only children of the Ninth growing up, and outside of Yen Sid and Vor, everyone older than them had strict standards for how children were expected to behave towards their elders. As a consequence, Riku had no experience in how to talk to people his own age. If he was lucky, he could lurk around the fringes of the room until he worked up the courage to try and talk to anyone. 

Unfortunately, he was not so lucky. As soon as introductions were finished, Dilan very pointedly asked if the Ninth House - that is, Riku - would do the honor of sparring against the Third House cavalier in the next match. 

Standing on the stone sparing area brought back memories of the darkened catacombs of Drearburh, where Riku trained in a cement-filled soldiers' hall so poorly lit that as a child he'd thought it looked more like a tomb. He took a deep breath to steady himself as he prepared himself for the match. Vor's education on his responsibilities as as a Cavalier had been thorough, covering all the different formal customs and roles for cavaliers outside the Ninth House. But despite his desire to take Sora and leave Drearburh behind, he had never truly given though to the idea that he would ever experience a formal duel between cavaliers for himself.

With Dilan arbitrating, Riku and Ephemer stood facing each other, personalized offhand weapons held against their collarbones. 

"To the first touch," Dilan declared clinically. "Clavicle to sacrum, arms exception. Call." 

Riku blinked in confusion. This was new to him. During his training, matches had always gone until one person was on the floor. There wasn't enough time to process that, however. Ephemer grinned at Riku with the enthusiasm of a kid about to play a ball game with his older brother, his mouth exposed with his red scarf hanging from the wall of the training room. But beneath the innocent-looking exterior, Riku recognized an air of confidence borne from many hours of practice. 

"Ephemer the Third," his opponent called loudly and clearly for the room to hear the pre-match formalities. 

"Riku the Ninth," he answered. 

"Seven paces back," Dilan directed. Riku and Ephemer walked away from each other toward the edge of the ring. 

"Turn." The two boys faced each other once more. 

"Begin!" 

* * *

The duel was over in three moves. 

Riku had avoided each of Ephemer's feints and dodged every one of his thrusts before tapping his sword to the Third cavalier's chest. For a whole minute after, everyone was silent, before Dilan finally swallowed his surprise and found his voice. 

"Match to the Ninth!" the man announced, prompting a round of applause from most of the other cavaliers in the room. Some, like Goofy and the man from the Second, were more enthusiastic, while others, like Isa the Fourth and Elrena the Sixth, were more reserved. Riku and Ephemer sheathed their swords and bowed to each other before stepping off the ring. Satisfied that he'd made a good impression as a cavalier, he stalked over to the freshly cleaned back corner while conversations struck up around him.

He'd given the other cavaliers something else to gossip about now, which should hopefully keep them from looking too closely at his and Sora's relationship. As Goofy stepped up to the sparring area to face off against Dilan, Riku wondered how many more matches would be enough before he could make an excuse to leave. As he started thinking about who would be the most ideal people to spar with, a voice snapped him out of his thoughts. 

"That was incredible!" Riku looked up to find Ephemer sliding up to sit beside him in the corner. 

"The way you dodged my attacks and got past my defenses!" the other boy continued. "Who was your sword master? They must have been incredible to teach you moves like that." 

Startled, Riku was silent for a moment as he hastily tried to figure out what to say in response. 

"Our captain of the guard," he finally answered, turning to face his conversation partner. "She saw combat on the front lines when she was younger." 

Ephemer's face lit up at his answer. 

"That's so cool!" the other cavalier exclaimed. "My necromancers and I were actually planning to enlist in the Cohort when we received the Emperor's summons. Hopefully we'll still be able to once we complete the trials for Ven and Vanitas to become Lyctors." 

"Hopefully," Riku answered, not sure what else to say. 

"You're not much of a talker, are you?" Ephemer asked. 

"Not really," Riku admitted. "Not a lot of children on the Ninth House. Just me and my necromancer after creche flu wiped out the rest of our generation." 

"That's terrible," Ephemer replied. "That must have been lonely growing up without people you're own age around." 

"It wasn't so bad," Riku commented. "Sora and I got along really well so we never minded. Didn't exactly prepare us for having an active social life." 

Ephemer laughed. 

"Well then allow me the honor of teaching the House of the Ninth how to have fun with someone their own age," the Third boy said. Riku pondered the offer for a moment. Ephemer seemed like the kind of person that Sora would love to hang out with. _Plus_ , he thought to himself, _bonding with the Third House may help us get answers on why one of their necromancers looks like Sora's mirror image, and why the guy seems so hostile towards us._

"We'd like that," he finally said. 

It was at that moment that the sounds of the rest of the room broke through their little bubble of conversation and reminded Riku of their surroundings. He looked away from Ephemer to see that Goofy appeared to have lost his bout with Dilan. 

"Match to the Eighth," declared Terra, who had arbitrated the match in Dilan's place. As Goofy and Dilan stepped down off the stage, the Second cavalier turned to Riku. 

"Ninth!" he called out. "You up for another round?"

Riku grinned. His brief interactions with the Second cavalier from the previous days gave him the impression that he had a lot in common with the man. Since sparring seemed to have gotten the ball rolling on talking to Ephemer, he couldn't think of a better way to break the ice. 

"You're on," he said. 


End file.
